December 02, 2009

Chicago City Council approves Mayor Daley's budget

Posted by Hal Dardick at 10:15 a.m.; last updated at 3:12 p.m. with aldermen who voted no on budget, Daley's comments

The Chicago City Council voted 38-12 today to approve Mayor Richard Daley's $6.1 billion budget proposal largely intact, but not before aldermen offered a smattering of complaints.

Ald. Thomas Allen, 38th, announced he would vote against Daley's budget for the first time in his aldermanic career. Allen said the spending plan would fail to uphold the council's pledge to maintain at least $400 million in parking meter lease money in a long-term reserve fund to replace the parking meter proceeds the city lost.

"Sometimes we sit in this room and think the 50 of us are breathing different air," Allen said.

Pointing out the lease has angered "the people on the street breathing the real air," Allen said he could not face his constituents after agreeing to a budget that would plunder the $400 million reserve for short term gain.

"We have to understand you just can't tell the citizens and taxpayers stories. You can't tell them stories. They're not stupid," Allen said.

Ald. Carrie Austin, 34th, chairman of the City Council's Budget Committee, applauded the mayor's proposal for maintaining services without raising taxes or fees. The use of city reserves makes sense, Austin said, while referencing Daley's pledge to replenish the funds at a later date.

Fioretti also called for a discussion about ways to use the revenue from special property tax districts to meet the city's fiscal crisis.

After passage of the budget, Daley said Chicago was lucky to even have the option of dipping into reserves.

“We got ahead of the slowing economy and we addressed it,” he said. “Had we not acted, our deficit would have been far greater next year. We would have been forced to do what other cities have done. Unfortunately, other cities are raising taxes and cutting basic city services.

“This budget protects taxpayers by holding the line on taxes, especially now, when people are laid off, they are cutting back, children can’t get jobs who graduated from college," Daley said. "It does not raise property taxes. It does not include any new tax, fine or fee or increase in any tax, fine or fee.”

He also criticized aldermen who opposed the budget for not offering other solutions.

“What taxes and fees would they raise to balance our budget?” he said. “No one presented a bill to raise a tax or raise a fee in this budget. What major city services would they like to cut? Which ones they wanted to cut — no one said that.”

Under the budget, only $130 million of a $400 million fund that was supposed to earn interest for the life of the 75-year lease would be left. Daley says he’ll restore the remaining $270 million when times get better.

That draw down is among the reasons the Civic Federation, a non-partisan government budget watchdog group that has supported Daley’s spending plans in recent years, opposes Daley's 2010 budget.

One reason aldermen have not protested too loudly is that the budget includes no new taxes, fines or fees — in stark contrast to recent years.

Aldermen were greeted with stress relief balls sitting on their desks today. The many-sided soft toys have large numbers on them. The packages say "Special Bailout Edition" and "The Manual Number Cruncher."

The stress balls are a gift from a company that sent a letter that reads, in part, "We know you have been busy crunching those budget numbers and have been under a lot of stress. This will help you get a firm grip on the situation and keep Chicago crunching instead of being crunched."

The Daley administration on Monday attempted to address some concerns about the budget by using $1.5 million in newly anticipated revenue that will result from a court settlement to restore funding in several areas.

Under that plan, which Moore contends does not go far enough, $600,000 would go to neighborhood organizations — mostly chambers of commerce — to promote economic development.

Another $200,000 would go to pay psychiatrists who work at the city’s mental health clinics, in part to restore some services. Another $500,000 would go to substance abuse treatment.

The rest, $200,000, would be used for tourism efforts, an area where the mayor initially proposed cutting $1 million.

To save $70 million next year, many city workers would take unpaid holidays and furlough days next year. Police officers and firefighters, who make up more than half the city’s workforce, are not included.

Let's eliminate the aldermen that voted with Daley (and always do). They are expensive pawns in Daleys machine. Why should taxpayers have to fund their salaries and lifestyles? They proven to be useless in protecting the city's assets, infrastructure and taxpayers.

Normally Toni Preckwinkle would have voted against this joke of a budget, but now she wants Daley's endorsement for Cook Co. Board Pres. so all pretense of being a reformer are gone. Remember how this so-called reformer voted during next year's primaries.

I'm still looking for the town, city, or state that actually build up a reserve when things were GOOD! I think this is the old case of we have it, we will spend it, and hope to repay it later. It never works!

It is strange that no one mentions that non-union workers are getting wacked again this coming year (as they have been in last several years) and once again the alderpeople and the mayor are exempt from taking the time off without pay.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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